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<H1>CSE/ENGR 142: <BR>
Computing at Home or Work </H1>
<P>
If you own a personal computer, or have access to a computer at
home, work, or elsewhere on campus, you may be wondering whether
you can use it for your 142 assignments, instead of the Sieg 323
lab. The answer is yes, and many students have done so, but quite
honestly, it is not completely easy. It will certainly help if
you are already somewhat adept with computers. We have tried to
organize the course so we will not stand in the way of this, but
you will be largely on your own in leaping a number of hurdles.
The added convenience of being able to work at home may compensate
for this. <BR>
<P>
<I>If you plan to use a computer a work, be sure that your employer
knows and approves. Some employers have a policy against the use
of company equipment or company time for personal use, but may
make an exception for education.<BR>
</I>
<P>
In order to be able to work outside the Sieg 323 lab, you need
to: 
<OL>
<LI><!WA0><!WA0><A href=#connected>stay connected</A>, 
<LI><!WA1><!WA1><A href=#compiler>get a compiler, editor, linker, and debugger</A>,
<LI><!WA2><!WA2><A href=#transfer>learn how to transfer files</A>, and 
<LI>learn about certain annoying differences between your computer
and ours, e.g., different options regarding <!WA3><!WA3><A href="http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142/c-info/4-byte.html">long ints</A>.
(Yes, even Mac users.) 
</OL>
<H3><A NAME="connected">Stay connected: </A></H3>
<P>
No matter where you compute, it is required that you keep in touch
(a) with what is happening in class, and (b) with announcements
made through the World Wide Web <!WA4><!WA4><A HREF="http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142/CurrentQtr/messages.htm">class messages</A>
and electronic mail. 
<P>
For (a), come to lecture and quiz section. If you have to miss
one or two, check the online lecture notes and ask a friend for
a synopsis. 
<P>
For (b), various approaches are possible: 
<UL>
<LI>Come into the lab regularly.
<LI>Visit another lab on campus regularly. At the time of this
writing, the Academic Computer Center, at the southwest corner
of Brooklyn and Pacific, has about 25 PCs running Microsoft Visual
C++, as well as some Macs running Think C. Both have Netscape.
They have longer hours than the Sieg 324 lab (24 hour access during
the academic year, less in summer. See the <!WA5><!WA5><A HREF="http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142/info/lab_info.htm" >lab schedules</A>.)
The computer lab in Suzallo has Netscape, but no compilers. <BR>
</UL>
<P>
<B>If you have a computer and appropriate high-speed modem at
home</B>. You can get an Internet &quot;IP&quot; connection and
dial into UW.  Then you could use Netscape to access to the class
Web, whose &quot;URL&quot; is: <TT>http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142</TT>
<UL>
<LI> If you are not on Windows 95: UW Computing and Communications
provides dialup Internet access (SLIP or PPP) to UW students.
<!WA6><!WA6><A href="http://www.washington.edu/tech_home/Connect_home.html">Click here</A>
for details, including directions for obtaining the necessary
software, either on a floppy or by downloading. You can also find
these &quot;Dial IP&quot; files, for both PCs and Macintoshes,
in the Sieg 324 lab. Questions are best directed to the people
at C&amp;C; their phone numbers and e-mail address can be found
on their Web pages. <BR>
<!-- Dropping lynx discussion, due to easy availability of IP --- wlr 6/96 --0--><!-- %3Cli%3E If you do not have Internet access, but do have a modem --0--><!-- you can get --0--><!-- %3Ca href="/education/courses/142/info/dialup.txt"%3Edial-up access%3C/a%3E --0--><!-- (including some --0--><!-- %3Ca href="/education/courses/142/info/modem-pool.txt"%3Etoll-free%3C/a%3E --0--><!--   service outside Seattle) --0--><!-- to university computers, again with appropriate software, --0--><!--  namely a "terminal emulator" such as Kermit. This will --0--><!--  allow you to read electronic mail. There is also a plain text-based --0--><!--  Web browser called "lynx"; it is like Netscape, but cannot show --0--><!--  pictures, or do fancy text-formatting. Lynx is available on --0--><!--  the university "uniform access" unix machines (for example, --0--><!-- homer), and is suitable for use through dialup lines to --0--><!--  read simple Web pages like this one, and most other 142 pages. To run --0--><!-- lynx on homer, for instance, at the "Welcome to Homer" menu --0--><!-- (where you normally type E --0--><!-- for electronic mail), type S to enter Unix commands. (To --0--><!-- return later to --0--><!-- the menu, type %3Ctt%3Eexit%3C/tt%3E.) Type the Unix command --0--><!-- %3Ctt%3Eman lynx%3C/tt%3E --0--><!-- for more information about lynx, --0--><!--  and --0--><!-- %3Cpre%3E --0--><!-- setenv WWW_HOME http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142/ --0--><!-- lynx %3C/pre%3E --0--><!-- to start lynx and access the 142 course Web. (The setenv --0--><!--  command may be moved to your .login or .cshrc file to avoid --0--><!--  repeatedly typing it.) --0-->
<LI>If you have Windows 95 at home, you don't need the dial IP
software - Win95 has networking software built-in. For a quick
start, look at C&amp;C's <!WA7><!WA7><A HREF="http://www.washington.edu/tech_home/faqs/plaintext/dialip.win95">Win95</A>
information, as well as the more <!WA8><!WA8><A HREF="http://www.washington.edu/tech_home/Connect_home.html">general information</A>
as mentioned above.
</UL>
<H3><A NAME="compiler">Get a compiler, editor, linker and debugger:
</A></H3>
<P>
For the bulk of the course work, you will need an ANSI C compiler,
plus associated editor, linker, and debugger. Usually all these
components will be bundled in one package. The Microsoft Visual
C++ program is used in Sieg 323. If you have a PC large enough,
MSVC is strongly recommended. However, it takes up quite a bit
of disk space and runs best with a fast CPU. MSVC is available
at the University Bookstore for about $55.00 plus tax. (We tried
but were unable to arrange an even better discount for students
of this course). The Borland C++ compiler is another popular tool
for PCs, but it will not be supported by course staff to the extent
that MSVC will be.<BR>
<P>
For Macintosh, &quot;Think C for Macintosh&quot;, sold by Symantec,
includes all the needed pieces. It is available at the University
Book Store with a student price of about $90. If you are planning
to continue in CSE 143, you will also want a C++ compiler. &quot;Symantec
C++ for Macintosh&quot; (no, it is not called Think C++) includes
Think C, as well as C++ and associated tools. The University Book
Store student price is about $130. These are the products we have
installed in the Sieg 324 lab and are probably a safe bet for
home use. (Version 8 is the latest version, for Power-Mac-only.
We are using version 7 in the lab, and do not yet know whether
version 8 will work smoothly with version 7.) Many people think
Metrowerks &quot;Codewarrior&quot; is an even better system, although
switching its files to/from the Symantec systems in the labs is
not fully automatic. 
<P>
Whatever you buy, our strongly held opinion is that a first-rate
symbolic debugger will be extremely valuable for this class and
any subsequent work you do. For the later graphics assignments
you will find it will be impossible to use DOS-based products
and difficult or impossible to use older versions of the Borland
and Microsoft compilers (Borland prior to version 4.0 and Microsoft
prior to version 1.52). 
<P>
(To date, students have not had much luck with Symantec's C++
product for Windows. We'd suggest you avoid it, unless you already
own it.) 
<P>
<I><B>Before buying any computer product</B></I>, find out about
compatibility with your existing system.  When you go into the
store, know at least your computer's CPU type, speed, memory size,
available hard drive space, and operating system.  Some software
(including MSVC) requires a CD-ROM for installation.  Read the
package label carefully.  And <I>caveat emptor</I>. 
<P>
You might also be able to use C compilers on the campus Unix machines,
but we think the lack of suitable graphical user interfaces and
debuggers will be a <STRONG>huge</STRONG> obstacle. In particular,
they will be of limited use on the later, graphical, homeworks.
<P>
If you do not want to buy a compiler, you can write and edit your
programs on almost any computer with a simple text editor or word
processor (saving your file as &quot;plain text&quot;). This may
let you do the bulk of your typing at home, then bring the file
to the lab for testing. It may take a little experimentation to
figure out how to do indentation, tabbing, and/or line-breaking
appropriately. In general tabs are to be avoided because of the
different ways in which they are displayed in different contexts,
in particular what you see may be different from what is displayed
when you print the output you have turned in. 
<H3><A NAME="transfer">Transfer files: </A></H3>
<P>
For many of the assignments we will provide files to you (sample
code, a skeleton of the solution, test data, etc.) and expect
you to provide files to us with your solutions. Outgoing file
transfer options are about the same as above: bring a disk to
the lab, or use Netscape, or a comparable browser. To turn in
files, you can bring a disk to the lab or use Netscape. Note that
if you have an IBM-compatible, the file transfer issues are complicated
slightly by the fact that IBMs and Macintoshes use different file
formats. The lab Macintoshes have &quot;Apple File Exchange&quot;
software installed, so they can read and write IBM format 3.5&quot;
floppies (but occasional troubles still arise). 
<H3><A NAME="mac">Mac file transfer:</A> </H3>
<P>
See <!WA9><!WA9><A href="http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/142/info/downloading-macbinaries.html">Downloading Macintosh Binaries </A>for
more information about downloading Macintosh files without visiting
the lab. 
<H3><A NAME="summary">Summary: </A></H3>
<P>
In short, it is be possible to work outside of the Sieg 323 Lab.
We were reasonably careful in setting up the course so we would
not preclude that possibility. But, you should expect a few headaches,
and unfortunately it may be difficult to find help. We certainly
do not know everything about every combination of hardware and
software! In light of this, we <STRONG>strongly</STRONG> recommend
that you do the first assignment, <STRONG>at least</STRONG>, in
our lab, so you have a graceful fallback &quot;just in case,&quot;
and <STRONG>always</STRONG> allow yourself ample time for final
testing, debugging, and electronic turn-in, in case bugs or incompatibilities
show up at that stage. 
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